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Research Unplugged features Brian Dempsey

Research Unplugged features Brian Dempsey

Brian Dempsey, professor of civil and environmental engineering, discussed "Pollution Without Progress?" at the Oct. 20 session of ResearchUnplugged. Dempsey talked about water pollution issues and the construction of I-99 with a group of students, faculty and community members. Research Unplugged, held at noon every Wednesday at the Downtown Theatre Center on Allen Street, is a town hall-style meeting with a focus on science and research.

Research Unplugged is a low-tech event, but faculty hosts are encouraged to bring props. Dempsey showed attendees a map of the I-99 construction area. He also passed around a cellphone-sized rock laced with pyrite, or iron sulfide, the mineral that was unearthed last year during the construction of I-99. Pyrite reacts with oxygen and water to create sulfuric acid. Dempsey said that one of his colleagues put a similar rock in his pocket during a visit to the construction site. "A week later he had a big hole in his pocket. This stuff is so reactive, the moisture in the air was enough to get it going," said Dempsey.

Dempsey said that he is working with a group of undergraduates from his Introduction to Environmental Engineering course to determine how much material from the piles of pyrite waste is making it into the surrounding streams. Community members in the audience had questions and comments about water quality throughout the region.

The next session of Research Unplugged -- "Are we really 'rocking the vote?' Getting young people to the polls in 2004" -- will feature host Eric Plutzer on Oct. 27. For more information, visit www.rps.psu.edu/unplugged